One UI 5 is the next major release of Samsung’s skin for its Galaxy devices. Based on Android 13, it provides the best of both worlds: Google’s take on Android with Samsung’s customizations and additional features on top of it. One UI 5 does not bring any significant UI overhaul but packs several new features.
Once the official Android 13 update lands on your Galaxy phone, check out the top One UI 5 features you must try.
1. Lock Screen Customization
Taking a cue from iOS 16, Samsung is making it easier than ever to customize the lock screen in One UI 5. Just long-press on the lock screen to start editing it. You can add certain widgets, change the lock screen wallpaper and clock style, tweak the notification display settings, and more. A live preview is shown to make customization easier.
Most of the customization options were present before—it is just that you can now access them more easily.
2. Change the System Color Palette
One UI 5 adopts the Material You enhancements that Google added in Android 13, including the improved dynamic theming engine. You are now provided access to up to 16 preset color themes based on the wallpaper. Once you have applied your preferred wallpaper, One UI 5 will automatically show the color palette with the colors extracted from the wallpaper.
If you do not like any of the 12 suggestions, you can select one of the 12 primary colors instead.
You can manually change the system color theme from Settings > Wallpaper and style > Color palette.
Once you have upgraded your Galaxy device to Android 13, check out the best Material You Android apps.
3. Turn Off RAM Plus
RAM Plus first made its debut on some low-end Galaxy A phones in 2021. Samsung then expanded the feature to its flagship and high-end devices with One UI 4.0.
RAM Plus uses your phone’s storage as an extension to your device’s memory and is also known as virtual RAM. RAM Plus is not a replacement for your phone’s physical RAM despite its naming scheme suggesting otherwise. Virtual RAM is always slower than physical RAM, and if not implemented correctly, it can slow down your device.
By default, RAM Plus used 4GB of onboard storage on Galaxy devices. With One UI 4.1, Samsung introduced additional options: 2GB, 6GB, and 8GB. However, there was no way to turn off the feature. In One UI 5, the company has added an option to turn off RAM Plus entirely.
If you have a high-end Galaxy device with 8GB or 12GB RAM, using RAM Plus won’t make any difference. It is better to turn off the feature and reclaim your device’s storage in such cases.
To turn off RAM Plus, navigate to Settings > Battery & Device care > Memory > RAM Plus. You will find the option to turn off RAM Plus here or set the amount of virtual memory you want it to use. A restart is required to implement the changes.
4. Multitasking Gestures
One UI 5 packs a few handy gestures to help you to up your multitasking game. You can swipe from the top corner towards the middle of the display to open any app in a pop-up view. Another gesture makes triggering split view mode easier than ever: swipe up with two fingers from the bottom of the screen. This gesture will also let you bring up the app drawer when you are already running two apps in split-screen mode.
These gestures were a part of One UI 4.1.1 on the Galaxy Z Fold 4, and before that, you could enable them through a Good Lock module. With One UI 5, Samsung is bringing the gestures to all its mid-range and premium devices. You can enable the Swipe for pop-up view and Swipe for split screen gestures from Settings > Advanced features > Labs.
Samsung has further deepened the OCR integration in the Gallery app in One UI 5. While you could always copy text from photos, you had to use the Bixby Vision feature. In One UI 5, you can long press on a piece of text in a picture, and the Gallery app will automatically recognize it.
Depending on the highlighted text, you will get the option to copy, translate, call, or look up a location in Google Maps.
Make sure to check out other powerful features of Samsung’s Gallery app to organize your photos and videos better.
Taking a cue from the iPhone’s Siri Suggestions widget, Samsung has added a Smart Suggestions widget in One UI 5. The 4×2 widget will automatically recommend apps and actions based on your usage.
7. Modes and Routines
Samsung has renamed Bixby Routines to Modes and Routines in One UI 5. The automation tool has become more powerful than ever with several new actions as well. With Modes, you can set up a mode to automatically change several system settings at once. For example, you can have a Driving mode that will automatically launch Google Maps and mute notifications from apps.
Routines have gained new trigger intents and system settings customizations, so you can create more powerful routines than before.
8. Camera App Improvements
Samsung’s Camera app in One UI 5 has received some notable improvements. You can easily zoom with one hand by swiping vertically on the zoom bar. To help new users with the Pro photo and video mode, Samsung will display helpful tips related to the different controls. For advanced users, Pro mode has gained a histogram so you can nail the exposure in your photos.
Further, One UI 5 enables using the telephoto camera on Galaxy devices in the Camera app’s Food mode. There are no image processing improvements, but you can follow our guide to make photos from your Samsung phone look less processed.
Samsung Will Continue Improving One UI 5
This is only the first major release of Android 13-based One UI 5 from Samsung. The Korean giant will continue improving its skin in the coming months with additional features and tweaks. And the best part is that these features will make their way to all recent mid-range and flagship Galaxy devices, thanks to Samsung’s excellent software update support.